LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

OLD wine in new bottles…. this citation is known to many! In good old days, most of the households used to feed the cattle, dogs, cats and such other domestic animals at homes and/or in nearby sheds, out of the residuals or unexhausted, cooked/dried food items at home! Alternatively, the leftover ‘food’ was even offered to those who were seen hungry, or to the beggars, maid servants as “offerings”. Now, may be on justifiable grounds, and due to latest technology and modern gadgets available in the market, all such un-consumed food, juices etc, are preserved in fridges/warmed up in the microwaves and consumed later at the convenient time/place by these stalwart members themselves in these same households. The other side of the coin, and/or of disadvantage, is all well-to-do, cultured, educated members of the said families developed an inertia and invited many avoidable ailments, of unknown nature, on consumption of large amount of such preserved food articles, beyond a unreasonable period of standard, stipulated! Preparing cooked food at home in required intervals has almost become ‘extinct’ practice over a period. Packed parcels are home delivered at minimal cost. Now a question is raised on very genuine ground…..who is pauper/hungry/beggar?…. those who lived in earlier days without adequate amount of healthy/fresh food to eat or the present generation swallowing preserved food and facing unheard evil effects by catching-up with un-curable diseases as a result of self-imposed ignorance! Moral: Wine in cask is preferred as compared to modern gadgets in large numbers extending scope of destruction in the near future.

JAYANT TILVE, PORVORIM

Phase Out Plastic Straws

IT is understood that Mc Donald’s is set to replace its plastic straws with paper ones across all its outlets in the UK and Ireland (NT June 16). The global fast-food chain reportedly uses a staggering 1.8 million straws a day only in the UK. The roll-out of the paper alternative has come amid pressure on companies to opt out single-use plastic products which can take hundreds of years to decompose if not recycled. In Goa there are hundreds of stalls serving soft drinks and fruit juices. These stalls are found at the bus stands, the marketplace and at the beaches. Fruit juices and cold drinks are also served in hotels. One common feature of all this is the use of plastic straws. In the olden days straws made of paper were used while serving soft drinks and juices in the stalls. However this has now been replaced by plastic straws, which is a single-use plastic product. The Goa government needs to introduce a total ban on the use of plastic straws as a step towards making Goa plastic free. Besides plastic bags, plastic straws could also be contributing, in a big way, towards plastic pollution in the state.

ADELMO FERNANDES, VASCO

Motorists’ Apathy To Road Safety Rules

THE city of Margao has always been in the throes of busy traffic snarls with none of the motorists or two-wheeler riders willing to give an inch when it comes to squeezing their way through bottlenecks to proceed on with their travel. For commuters entering Margao from the Colva circle end, the traffic scenario at the junction is nothing short of a virtual bedlam with vehicles and bikes crossing at will unmindful of the confusing trail they leave behind. Not to say that the traffic personnel manning the junction are of any help! For that matter, with their ignorance of traffic management clearly on display, doubts did abound as to whether Goa Police really trains their staff to control traffic at busy crossroads! The unruly drivers and incompetent traffic cops combined to make motoring a miserable experience at the circle. In this regard, the installation of traffic signals at the Old Market Circle is arguably the best thing that has happened for streamlining traffic in the busy commercial capital of the state – or so it seems. The skepticism stems from the fact that even after the commissioning of the traffic signals, the vehicular movement at the Old Market Circle is as laborious as it was before with long queues of four and two-wheelers vying to take precedence on the roads. With such a facsimile of the old characterising the traffic pattern even now, it becomes more than evident that the travelling public is as ignorant about traffic rules as they are about systems that attempt organising the confusion observed. Furthermore, the public reactions and response to the traffic signals leave a lot to be desired. So habituated are the locals to the infringement of every traffic rule in the book that jumping the lights comes so very easily to them. Worse still has been snake-like crawl of the vehicles even after the green-light comes on! The police deployed at the circle to oversee the smooth flow of the traffic are conspicuous by their indifference to the whole exercise. While structural changes to the traffic island and other flaws including improper laning and short movement time for vehicles entering and exiting Margao town, as suggested by traffic authorities, need consideration for smooth flow of traffic; it is the police and public mentality at these busy junctions that calls for reformation.